Tony Halik Explorers’ Museum in Torun has recently opened an exhibition of Tomek Kawiak’s works. He is a sculptor, painter and traveller, who left bricks in the places he visited. The exhibition consists of his paintings, sculptures and bricks, and it’s available until October 2nd.
Tomasz ‘Tomek’ Kawiak was born in 1943 in Lublin. Between 1962-1967 he studied painting and interior design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he graduated with a diploma in 1968. Soon after he moved to Paris, where he studied at Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He participated in the action “Briquetage”, where the participants left burned-out bricks in the places he visited.
“When I made my first named brick back in 1976 in France, I knew that it was the first stone to mark my artistic journey. I started travelling around the world and burning out my bricks. Always the same shape, but colours and enamel relating to the sites where I burned them,” explained Tomasz Kawiak. Leaving the bricks was a way of marking his presence in various spots in the world.
Title of the exhibition: “Here I Was… With a Brick” is a play on the words that his friend Tony Halik (famous Polish explorer and journalist, the Museum was named after him) would say often after visiting different places. It was suggested by Halik’s wife, Elżbieta Dzikowska.
The exhibition is open until October 2nd, 2022 during Museum’s opening hours. The tickets cost PLN 21 and PLN 16 (reduced price).